


Bad News

by yoshikoblack



Category: Original Work, The Story of Yoshiko Black
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-15
Updated: 2019-02-15
Packaged: 2019-10-28 17:10:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17791406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yoshikoblack/pseuds/yoshikoblack





	Bad News

“Yoshiko!” Julie ran up to him on the street outside his house as he was just about to enter.

Yoshiko paused and turned towards her. She was waving a piece of paper as she came at a running approach. The misty rain glittered in her hair as it bounced in rhythm with her steps. She slowed as she reached him, and looked down at the cracked pavement between them.

“I have some news,” she continued. She wouldn’t meet his eyes.

 _Unusual._ Yoshiko noted. _Bad news, then._ “Come in.” He opened the front door and let her inside. In the grand hallway, he casually took off his coat as he waited for Julie to tell him what she knew. But she remained quiet.

Yoshiko sighed. This didn’t bode well. “Want a drink?”

Julie shifted where she’d stopped by the worn door in the darkness. “Thanks,” she replied in a quiet voice which echoed throughout the hall.

Yoshiko headed for the parlor without a backwards glance, hearing Julie’s light footsteps follow behind him. “Have a seat,” he told her while fetching a bottle of wine and glasses, knowing fully well that Julie preferred water, but feeling that the atmosphere was tense enough that she’d need something stronger today. He set the glasses down on a side table between the two old armchairs in front of the fireplace where Julie has seated herself. She sat on the edge of the cushion with her back straight as she looked anywhere but in Yoshiko’s general direction.

Yoshiko poured them both some of the wine and waited patiently for her to start talking. “You were gone a while,” he said nonchalantly. “Where did your journey take you this time?”

“Hell,”Julie replied shortly. She then stayed quiet for several moments, all the while wringing the paper between her clenched hands. Yoshiko grew all the more curious of what she had learned at her mention of his birthplace.

“I’m sorry.“ Yoshiko realised suddenly that the room lay in darkness as the sky remained covered with thick clouds, and went to light a few candles. Maybe she couldn’t see what was written on the paper? He sometimes forgot humans couldn’t see as well in the dark as other species.

As he returned to his seat in the other armchair beside Julie, she suddenly reached the paper towards him. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. She didn’t know how to relay him the news. It was better to let him read about it and take his time.

Yoshiko took the paper and unfolded it as he glanced at his friend. He then turned his eyes to the slip in his hands and read:

> MASSACRE IN THE 3RD SECTOR; SOUTHERN.  
> NUMBER OF VICTIMS STILL UNKNOWN. H.R.G INVESTIGATING. SUSPECTING A DEMON OF GLUTTONY.

Yoshiko reread the short note over and over.  _The 3rd Sector. Southern. Home…_ He stared silently at the paper. Julie sat equally silent at his side.

After a few minutes, Yoshiko looked up at her with his pale grey eyes. “Do you know about—?”

Julie nodded. “I went to see it with my own eyes, to make sure.”

 _AND!?_  Yoshiko wanted to scream, but nothing came out his mouth. He clenched the paper tightly in his grip, ignoring the ripping sound that followed.

“I’m sorry,“ Julie suddenly met his eyes. “It was a wasteland. Nothing for miles… besides the Royal Guard. No houses, no people. Nothing.“

“Are you sure you got the place right?“ Yoshiko prompted. There was no accurate map of the 3rd Sector, so if you didn’t know the place, it was easy to get it wrong.

“I asked the Guard. They confirmed the orphanage as- as the source of the outbreak,“ Julie sniffled. “’It looked like a butcher’s shop’, they said. It had to be burnt down to prevent any diseases from spreading.”

Yoshiko fell back against the chair. It was all gone..? The family that had raised him when no one else seemed to care? Kasumi: The purest soul to be found in Hell, who willingly took him in and called him son? Annie: The dimpled and freckled brown cheeks of the girl who loved him and kept smiling even after he had been reborn as a monster? Lin: The younger girl who was a ray of sunshine in the darkness of Hell? And Haruka: the quiet, gluttonous and even younger one who had so mysteriously shown up only for their mother to have someone try to fill the hole left in her heart when their father had died?

Yoshiko heaved a weary sigh. It felt like centuries had passed since he last saw them, and now he never would again.

“A demon of gluttony…“ Yoshiko repeated the words under his breath, and his fingers dug into the plush armrests, tearing the thick fabric further, as he recalled the innocent face of the youngest of the Black daughters…


End file.
